1. Technical Field
The present application relates to a beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material, having a closing machine and a method for closing bottles, as described herein below.
2. Background Information
A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can possibly comprise a beverage filling machine with a plurality of beverage filling positions, each beverage filling position having a beverage filling device for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material. The filling devices may have an apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined volume of liquid beverage filling material into the interior of bottles to a substantially predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material. The apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined flow of liquid beverage filling material further comprises an apparatus that is designed to terminate the filling of the beverage bottles upon the liquid beverage filling material reaching the predetermined level in bottles. There may also be provided a conveyer arrangement that is designed to move bottles, for example, from an inspecting machine to the filling machine. Upon filling, a closing station closes the filled bottles. There may further be provided a conveyer arrangement configured to transfer filled bottles from the filling machine to the closing station. Bottles may be labeled in a labeling station, the labeling station having a conveyer arrangement to receive bottles and to output bottles. The closing station and the labeling station may be connected by a corresponding conveyer arrangement.
Closing machines, in particular those with a rotating construction, for the closing of containers such as bottles, for example, with caps by screwing them into place are basically known (U.S. Pat. No. 2,076,631). The caps used in these machines can be made of metal (e.g. aluminum) for example, but they can also be made of plastic. These caps that are made of plastic are prefabricated with an internal screw thread with which they are screwed onto the external screw thread of the bottle which is provided on the mouth of the bottle for the closing, and they are tightened with a specified torque.
One construction that has become particularly common is one in which a plurality of screw-on units are provided in a rotating circulating rotor, the shaft of which screw-on units is rotated in realizations of the prior art by a pinion that sits on the shaft, which pinion runs along on a toothed rim that is installed non-rotationally on the stator. For its part, the shaft rotates the screw head, into which the cap has previously been fed in the conventional gripping engagement. As the rotor rotates, the screw-on units are moved downward one after another by their level control system toward the bottles below them and thereby screw the cap onto the bottle.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,987,313 and EP 0521581 A1 disclose that each screwing unit can be provided with its own drive motor, the shaft of which is oriented axially parallel to the shaft of the screwing unit and is coupled to the screwing unit by a transmission. One disadvantage of such an apparatus is the complexity of the design and the resulting expense for the transmission coupling and the additional bearing points that must rotate with the apparatus, whereby the entire screwing unit still has to be moved toward the bottle.
In similar devices of the prior art, attempts have been made, by providing a small outside diameter of the screwing device, to increase the speed of rotation of the screw head independently of the speed of rotation of the rotor, to increase the throughput. In this regard, it is known that the shaft can be provided with a translation gearing between the toothed rim and the pinion which increases the speed of rotation. For construction reasons, given the extremely small amount of space available for the installation of the screw-on units in a screw-on device, however, this arrangement entails significant design problems. A similar construction is illustrated in EP0 690 020 A1. In this design, however, for the reasons disclosed in the patent, the gearing results in an undesirable reduction in the speed of rotation of the screw head. An additional similar construction is illustrated in DE 91 02 659 U1. In this construction, two gear sets are optionally engaged for different screwing depths, which results in a very complex construction.
Finally, the prior art also describes a device for the capping of bottles or similar containers with closing or screw caps that has a plurality of capping positions formed on the periphery of a rotor that rotates around a vertical machine shaft, to which positions the containers to be closed are transferred at a container inlet, and the closed containers are removed at a container outlet. Each closing position has a container carrier and a screw spindle that is provided on its lower end with a screw head and is mounted so that it can rotate around a container or spindle axis, which can be driven in rotation around its spindle axis by a drive, whereby the drive of the screw spindles can be adjusted or controlled in terms of the torque that is transmitted to the screw head and/or the speed of rotation of the screw heads.
The prior art also describes a similar device of the type disclosed in DE 20218523. In this device, special emphasis is placed on an exposed construction which is easy to clean, because the planned area of application of this closing machine is cold aseptic bottling.
To reduce the number of components and assemblies required and the resulting surface area, gaps, undercuts and slots to be cleaned, in this device, the capping heads are realized so that they are quasi-stationary vertically, and associated with each of these closing heads is a drive motor which drives the capping head directly, i.e. without additional gearing.
The bottles to be capped are thereby moved from a lower inlet position into an upper closing position, and are then moved into a lower discharge position.
With the teaching of DE 202 18 523, great progress was achieved with regard to the time and effort involved in cleaning, as well as in the safety and reliability of the process, in particular with regard to aseptic bottling, although further tests and analyses have demonstrated that there is additional potential for improvement.
With an increased demand for quality of the beverage to be filled into containers and its stability of durability, there is at hand a type of arrangement in which the handling positions are disposed in a closed space that is supplied with a special atmosphere. Such a space can be supplied with an inert atmosphere, for example, carbon dioxide, with a sterilizing atmosphere, or with hydrogen peroxide and thus can ensure a treatment of the beverage that is low in oxygen and low in germs, this being of paramount importance for the filling quality of the beverage. Such handling machines are known in many varieties in the beverage industry.
German Patent No. DE-PS 696,569 shows an arrangement in which a filling machine is disposed in a closed housing. The space that is provided in this manner is determined by the full size of the machine and has a substantial volume. German Patent Publication No. DE-OS 199 11 517 A1 shows a rotating filling machine that is fully disposed in a tightly surrounding housing that has a size that is determined by the size of the machine and, accordingly, the housing is also of substantial volume. German Patent No. DE-PS 198 35 369 C1 shows an embodiment in which the lower handling positions of container handling machines extend in sealed manner from above into a space that is supplied with a special atmosphere. This space is equipped so as to be accessed from below.
A further solution is disclosed in German Patent Publication No. DE-OS 197 31 796. The technical embodiment of this reference comprises a filling machine and a closing machine that are both disposed in a clean space or room that has a volume that is dimensioned so as to be so tight such that there is only space for maintenance at the filling machine and at the closing machine. By way of the reduction of the volume of the clean space, a lowering of the operating expense of the arrangement is to be attained. In addition, an immersion bath sterilizer is directly disposed at the clean space. This measure is to achieve, in contrast with European Patent No. EP 0120 789, to make the second rinser superfluous and to obviate associated operating and capital expenditures. This solution comprises overall the drawback that also in this embodiment there is suggested a clean space that fully envelops the filling machine, as well as the closing machine, and this arrangement requires a large amount of space and high construction and operating expenses. The desired extensive reduction in size of the constructive volume of the clean space that is sought in this teaching entails marked disadvantages, due to the diminished accessibility when maintenance is to be carried out.
The substantial volume of the space that is supplied with a special atmosphere is, accordingly, of disadvantage in the designs of the prior art. In the event of disruptions of operations, the space needs to be opened. It is then filled with normal ambient air and is correspondingly accessible to germs. The subsequent cleaning of the space prior to resumption of operations is largely determined by the surfaces and the overall volume of the space. In the case of the known large clean rooms, accordingly, the interruptions of operations, that are necessary due to disruptions of operations, or required relocation of machines, as well as the unavoidable cleaning of machines, last for hours.
From German Patent Publication No. DE-OS 101 45 803 A1 (corresponding to International Patent Publication No. WO 03/024860 A1, published on Mar. 27, 2003) and German Petty Patent No. DE-GM 297 13 155 U1, (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 6,026,867 issued to Karl on Feb. 22, 2000), it is finally known that the closed space is configured as an annular tunnel structure that moves about/or surrounds the carousel of the filling machine and the annular boiler, on the one hand, and by the stationary surfaces, on the other hand, whereby the carousel surfaces and the stationary surfaces are disposed in sealing manner atop one another or, respectively, with respect to one another by way of concentric seal elements. These known configurations already substantially reduce the required clean space.